Mock Trial Part Thirteen; More Witnesses

It felt like a big win, taking apart the Dr Brookes’ testimony, but the reality of the situation for the Trial was that it would only count as one point on a Mock Trial scorecard, and if it were a real trial all you’d accomplished was to negate her testimony that there wasn’t any erratic driving. The psychological impact was a little larger though - if it were a Jury trial, you would have made the opposition look silly presenting her as a witness, though that would be a diminished effect for a Judge. The real psychological gold was in frustrating, consternating and otherwise aggravating the opposing counsel.

When you returned to your table, Tucker looked… Well, he looked like he’d seen a ghost. He was a little pale, and his eyebrows were raised while her mouth was doing a sort of pained smile expression. Samantha was furiously flipping through notes, not even glancing up. Thomas was downright scowling and looked like he wanted to curse you out.

They were on tilt. Now you had to figure out a way to keep them that way for the rest of the day.

Amanda, on the other hand, made eye contact with you and gave you a slight nod in a ‘nicely done’ sort of way. Maeve seemed like she wasn’t paying attention at all and was idly scrolling on her phone.

Thomas ended up calling their next witness, yet another of the drivers that had been involved in the accident, and went on a tear of strange questions that had Sabrina standing up constantly to voice new objections. Judge Mathews ended up scolding Thomas and suggested the ‘young man’ should remind himself of the rules of witness examination. All they ended up getting for their trouble was a confused witness on the stand while leaving you an opening.

After the proper pleasantries, you got straight to the point. “Mr Redikoff, on the day of the incident, you were one lane over and approximately one car removed from the Plaintiff’s vehicle, correct?”

“That’s correct,” answered the Senior Associate who was playing the driver. You were pretty sure his actual name started with a W, but you only knew him by his daily coffee order of Tall Black, Oat Milk.

“Did you happen to take particular notice of the plaintiff’s vehicle prior to the incident?” you asked.

“I did,” he nodded.

“Why was that?”

“Well,” he said. “They were hauling some sort of wood, but it was too long for their trunk and was hanging out the back a pretty long distance.”

“Objection, Your Honour,” Samantha said. “He’s speculating.”

“I don’t see how, Your Honour,” you said. “The witness is reporting what he saw.”

“The witness can’t know the depth of my client’s trunk space,” she said quickly. “Or how long the allegedly overhanging wood was.”

“Objection overruled,” Jude Mathews said. “Ms Van Der Groot, you are well aware that you’re reaching with that description of ‘speculation.’”

“Thank you, Your Honour,” you and Samantha both said, her’s a little harsher than yours.

“So, Mr Radikoff,” you said. “Did you notice if the trunk was secured in any way?”

“It looked like they’d tried to close it, and then tied it with something, but it was bouncing because there was too much slack.”

“And was there any sort of caution flag on the wood hanging out the back of the vehicle?”

“Not that I could see,” he said.

“Those are all my questions for this witness, Your Honour,” you said, nodding respectfully, and then backing away. Thomas got back up and tried to use their redirect to minimise the whole wood thing, but other than admissions that Radikoff couldn’t say exactly how long the wood was, how exactly how far it was hanging out the trunk, he couldn’t kill it all.

Two more witnesses were brought up before the morning break, one last character witness followed by Officer Penholt. The character witness was another easy squash for Eric to handle, pointing out the lack of relevance of their testimony to the contract matter. Officer Penholt, who you had always marked as a potential witness for the Defence, was apparently the opposition's pivot since you’d agreed to allow the suppression of the baggy of marijuana he had found in the Jacobs’ trunk post-accident. You had to assume they wanted to get Law Enforcement on record to note that the Jacobs weren’t charged for causing the multi-car pileup, and since you’d already successfully gotten the ‘confession’ of Greg Tribonello to Officer Sanchez suppressed, they must have thought Penholt was the better option.

The actual examination, conducted by Tucker again, was fairly brief. Tucker had Penholt, played by an associate from the other firm, confirm the official police report and then Tucker entered it into evidence. He then had Penholt relay his findings. You were paying particular attention to anything that could open up the **** line of questioning again - even though it was suppressed if the plaintiffs made it relevant again you could dig down on it.

Unfortunately, either Tucker was smart enough to skirt around the issue or the Associate was smart enough to do it for him. There just weren’t any openings to bring it up again, but that wasn’t a big loss.

Tucker finished his questioning and handed off the witness to you, and you stood up and did the requisite thanking of the court, and approached the podium with your notes. The nice thing was that, even with the **** suppressed, you could still get the one thing you needed from any of the Law Enforcement officers who had been on the scene.

“Good morning, officer,” you said. “I’ll just have a few clarifying questions for you, so we should be able to get you out of here shortly. May I approach the witness, Your Honour?” Judge Mathews nodded, and you thanked him and approached the ‘Officer’ with a printout. “I am presenting the witness with Exhibit 2. Was this vehicle, previously identified as belonging to the Jacobs’, one of the ones involved in the accident?”

The ‘Officer’ looked at the photo and then nodded. “It was,” he said.

“What was the state of the vehicle when you first observed it?”

“Both sides had been heavily damaged,” the ‘Officer’ said. “The right side from an impact and the left from scraping along the highway raised median barrier. The rear end had collapsed in due to being struck from behind.”

“Was the trunk of the vehicle open, or closed?”

“Objection, Your Honour!” Samantha shot up from her seat.

Breakthebar erotica is powered by Patreon, where OFG chapters are now releasing 5+ chapters ahead. PM if interested in making a Commission.